


Soup's On!

by The_Meme_Team



Category: Epithet Erased (Cartoon)
Genre: Gen, One Shot, Short & Sweet, Sickfic, but actually more of a snifflefic, could be read as romantic or platonic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-06
Updated: 2020-05-06
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:01:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24030259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Meme_Team/pseuds/The_Meme_Team
Summary: The reader is a bit under the weather, good thing you have the greatest villain in all of Sweet Jazz City looking after you. Now have some soup.
Relationships: Giovanni Potage & Reader, Giovanni Potatage/Reader
Comments: 3
Kudos: 45





	Soup's On!

**Author's Note:**

> i recommend reading this in chrome and with a word replacing extension. set it to replace any instances of "Y/N" with your own name or nickname of choice. anyway, this is my first time writing Giovanni so I hope I did him justice lol

You sit up in bed, your head pounding. It’s as if your brain is trying to break out of your skull. You feel like someone shoved a bunch of sponges up your nose. You try to take a deep breath, but it’s not happening. 

Awesome. No, that’s just like  _ super  _ cool.

As your gaze shifts toward the garbage bin in the corner, now beginning to more closely resemble a snow-capped mountain of tissues, you hear a noise. It’s knocking, coming from the front door of your apartment. 

“Hey! Y/N! Are you awake? It is I, the great  _ Giovanni Potage _ ! And I am currently standing out here with a very heavy bag, so I’d appreciate it if you opened the door!” 

Giovanni’s distant voice bounces down the hall and into your room, drawing a smile from you. As you open your mouth to respond, you feel a tickle in your nose. Oh, God. You sneeze once, twice, three times, each time it feeling like your head is a pistol being fired. 

“Y/N?! Are you okay?” he continues.

You throw your covers off of you and stand up, immediately beginning to feel light-headed. You stumble your way to the front door, your head feeling like it’s dragging behind you the entire time. Finally, you manage to unlock it and open it. Giovanni looks down at you with wide eyes. He’s dressed more casually than usual, and it’s jarring seeing him out of his uniform. Sure enough, however, he’s also carrying a big black tote bag with both hands. He immediately sets the bag down and turns to you.

“Hey, are you feeling okay? You look  _ really  _ messed up!” 

“I’m just… a little under the weather, sorry, I know we were supposed to hang out today, I was gonna text you, but I fell asleep.”

“Well jeez, that wasn’t very responsible of you, why don’t you go lay back down?”

You try to blink away the dizziness, but it doesn’t work. 

“No, it’s cool, I’m fine so-”

Giovanni stomps his foot.

“Nonsense! I won’t hear it, Excuse me, but I’m coming inside!”

Before you can respond, he’s picked up the bag and brought it inside with him. 

“Giovanni, you don’t have to-”

“It’s  _ Boss _ , by the way.”

“But… we’re not on the clock?”

“We are now! You see, Y/N, it’s my  _ job  _ to take care of my minions, and that means if one of my minions is sick, it’s my responsibility to look after them!”

“B-but you-” 

“Now go lay down! And just leave everything to your wise and generous leader.”

You sigh. It’s difficult to argue with him when he’s like this. You shuffle back to your room. Getting back into bed is easy, and you feel a wave of relief wash over you as you sink into the pillows and blankets. A few minutes pass by, and soon you hear more knocking, this time it’s on your bedroom door. 

Giovanni is standing in the doorway with oven mitts on both hands. Those… aren’t yours. Did he… have them with him? More importantly, you notice he’s using them to hold a bowl, which definitely is yours, and that a curl of steam is rising from it. 

“Is that…?”

“Only the  _ finest _ tomato soup in all of Sweet Jazz City! It’ll help with the congestion, so be sure to eat it all up.”

He sets the bowl on the nightstand next to you. 

“Do you have something I can put this on?”

“Oh… yeah, there’s like a tray thing in my closet I think, up on the top.”

He strides over to the closet doors and opens them. As he reaches up, you look back over at the pile of tissues in the corner of your room.

_ Oh no. _

If he sees all those tissues he’s  _ definitely _ gonna think you’re disgusting! You begin moving to get out of bed again, but are interrupted by another sneeze. And then another. Giovanni turns around and sees you mid-escape. He frowns.

“Hey, why are you trying to get out of bed?!”

“It’s just- I thought-”

His eyes follow your line of sight to Mt. Tissue. You sigh.

“Sorry, I didn’t get time to clean up or anything, you just came in so suddenly, and-”

“Silence!”

He walks over with the tray and sets it down in front of you, effectively trapping you in the bed. He places the bowl on top of it and places a spoon and a napkin on each side of it.

“ _ Eat the soup! _ ”

You flinch at the command, grabbing the spoon and immediately gathering some of the deep red liquid onto it. You raise it to your lips and blow on it. You look up at Giovanni, who’s staring intently at your mouth. You swallow the spoonful. The taste is excellent, but more so than that, the warmth in your throat is soothing. You feel the steam from the bowl rising up into your nose and take a deep breath. It comes a little easier now, and it smells of a variety of different seasonings.

Your eyes return to Giovanni, who looks as though he’s waiting for something.

“...Why are you staring at me like that?” you ask.

“Oh, it’s nothing, it’s just… do you, um… like it?”

There’s a beat.

“Oh, yeah, it’s great, thank you Gi- er, Boss,” you say.

He smiles. You return to eating the soup as Giovanni sits at the foot of your bed. It’s the perfect temperature, so you don’t have to blow on it too much. Before you even realize it, you’ve hit the bottom of the bowl, struggling to get the remaining puddle onto your spoon. You lean back into your pillow, taking another deep breath. It’s not a magical cure or anything, but it’ll do. Your eyes drift back over to the empty bowl in front of you.

“W-Woah, that was some lightning-fast eating!” he exclaimed.

You stifle a burp. He’s… not wrong.

“Ah, s-sorry, it was good though,” you say, sniffling.

“Next time, really try to  _ savor _ the taste,” he began, before pausing to point a thumb at his chest,

“ _ Giovanni Potage’s Homemade Soup _ is not an experience that should be taken lightly!” 

You open your mouth to laugh, but the action is interrupted by a cough. When you’ve finished, you notice that Giovanni is frowning.

“Have you been coughing too?” he asks in a gentle voice.

“Um, yeah I mean every once in a while, but I don’t think it’s related,” you say.

“Do you think it might be the flu?”

You open your mouth to answer, but you hesitate. You honestly hadn’t considered it. From all the sneezing and congestion, you’d assumed it was just a common cold. Giovanni suddenly scooches forward and leans toward you, causing you to reflexively pull back. He blinks in surprise.

“Oh, sorry, I… should’ve asked,” he says.

“Um, what do you mean?”

“Well… I was gonna try to see if you have a fever.”

“O-oh…”

After that, there’s a silence between the two of you, and it strikes you that he’s probably waiting for some kind of approval. You give only a nod, and in exchange he reaches his hand out, placing it on your forehead. It’s warm, but you’re not the one who should be feeling for temperature right now. He furrows his brow as if puzzled by something. You’ve also noticed that his hand has been there for… a while now. 

Just as quickly as you notice it, he moves his hand away, leaning back. 

“W-well, my hand was probably still hot from the bowl, so it’s hard to tell! Hm, maybe I should just get a thermometer instead,” he ponders.

“There’s one in the bathroom, the medicine cabinet,” you begin, but catch yourself in time to make a brief amendment.

“Oh! But don’t… look at any of the stuff in there, okay?”

He huffs.

“You think you can give commands to your  _ leader _ ?”

“Please, Giovanni?” your voice gets softer. 

His expression quickly shifts to a worried one.

“Alright, I’ll, uh… be right back… okay?” he says, standing up.

You nod, smiling. For someone who likes to act high and mighty, he bends pretty easily. It’s not something you ever picked up on before. You always assumed there was probably more to him than his “evil villain” act, but this is like a completely different side of him. Giovanni never seemed like the type of person who’d ever take a situation too seriously, so why now? Is it because of you? Does he just care about his “minions” that much?

Before you have a chance to reflect on any of these questions, Giovanni returns, holding the thermometer with both hands for some reason. He looks down at it as he carries it around the bed and to you. 

“O-okay, Y/N, so I didn’t look in the cabinet, but I found it!”

He holds it out to you. A sincere smile spreads across your face. It really  _ must _ be because of you after all, somehow. 

“Thanks, Boss, I knew you’d be good at this, you’re the best leader an aspiring evil-doer could ever ask for,” you tell him.

For a brief moment, he looks genuinely happy, but soon his mouth quickly twists into a mischievous grin.

“But of course, faithful minion! Where would you be without a leader as capable, and dare I say charismatic, as me?”

You shrug. You aren’t sure how to answer that, but if you’re certain one thing, it’s that you’re glad he’s here. You take the thermometer from him and place it under your tongue. You’ve never been very good at keeping it still, so it kinda shifts around as you try to stop it from falling out. You aren’t sure how long it takes, but soon enough it begins beeping, and you take it out to examine the number. 

97.9 ° Fahrenheit. 

You and Giovanni both let out a relieved sigh. No fever. You put the cap on the thermometer and place it on the nightstand.

“It’s a good thing you don’t have a fever, but if you did, I can assure you that I’d be able to cure it with ease!”

“You would?”

He chuckles.

“Oh my naive, adorable little minion, didn’t you know? I can create soup with potent healing abilities, it’s just one of my many talents!” 

...Adorable? But yeah, you didn’t know that. You look down at the empty bowl. Now that you think about it, you  _ have  _ been feeling a lot better since you had the soup. 

“Ah, maybe your soup is already working?”

“Oh is it~? How are you feeling now?”

You try to focus, but instead, you just let out a yawn. You answer while your mouth is still open.

“Tired, mostly?”

“W-well, that’s a good thing! You can’t  _ totally  _ rely on my epithet, after all. Rest is just as important if you want to make a quick recovery!”

You won’t argue with that. You allow yourself to slide further under your covers until your head is once again resting on your pillow. It’s cool and soft, and you can’t help but bury your face into it. You open your eyes to see Giovanni leaving the room. 

“Where are you going?”

“Where are you going,  _ Boss.” _

“Right, sorry Boss.”

“And I’m going to tidy up the kitchen, but rest assured, your dear leader will not be leaving any time soon! I’ll still be here when you wake up, so don’t think you can shirk your responsibilities as a Banzai Blaster!” 

Your eyes are getting heavier, and keeping them open has become impossible. You figure you might as well stop trying to fight it and let yourself surrender to sleep. 

Giovanni will be waiting for you? It’s a reassuring thought, and you’re glad to not be alone, but that’s not what’s so appealing about the idea. Maybe it’s just because he’s your leader, but… you really look forward to seeing him again.


End file.
